Perth wins battle for official Monopoly board

THE city of Perth has beaten off competition from 19 other Scottish locations to land its own Monopoly board.
Scone Palace is set to feature in the Perth edition of the game. Picture: Wiki CommonsScone Palace is set to feature in the Perth edition of the game. Picture: Wiki Commons
Scone Palace is set to feature in the Perth edition of the game. Picture: Wiki Commons

Scotland’s ancient capital city will be immortalised in a special edition of the property board game in the 80th anniversary year of Monopoly.

As part of the game’s celebrations, 20 Scottish towns and cities were nominated, with Perth, Falkirk, Ayr, Motherwell, Stirling and St Andrews making the shortlist.

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And Perth, home to St Johnstone FC and birthplace of Ewan McGregor, John Buchan and Labour MSP Richard Simpson, saw off a spirited effort from St Andrews to win 28.6 per cent of the vote, just ahead of the university town’s 27.9 per cent.

Perth beat off competition from 19 other Scottish towns. Picture: TSPLPerth beat off competition from 19 other Scottish towns. Picture: TSPL
Perth beat off competition from 19 other Scottish towns. Picture: TSPL

Stirling was third with 20.5 per cent while Ayr (8.7 per cent), Falkirk (8.2 per cent) and Motherwell (6.1 per cent) made up the rest of the final six.

Perth residents will go to the polls on May 8 to vote on which landmarks should be included, with Scone Palace, Perth Museum and Art Gallery, McDiarmid Park, Scone Racecourse and of course Perth High Street.

The ‘Chance’ and ‘Community Chest’ cards will also be given a Perth twist - players could be hit with fines for dropping litter in Branklyn Garden or rewarded with VIP tickets for watching St Johnstone.

Graham Barnes, Monopoly Executive at Winning Moves, told the Perth Gazette: “Many congratulations to Perth and thank you to everyone who voted. Scotland’s ancient capital will make a great board we are absolutely sure. Commiserations to the other five in the final stage of the contest.

“St Andrews ran Perth extremely close all the way through the voting and at one point we were thinking we may have to roll the Monopoly dice to decide. Just two days before the voting ended they were dead-heating.

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“It certainly was a great race and one worthy of Monopoly itself, with so many twists and turns during polling.”

Winning Moves made the announcement at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery this morning, with Perth and Kinross Provost Liz Grant in attendance, along with representatives of Monopoly from London.

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Provost Grant added: “Perth has many famous landmarks which hold a special place in the hearts of visitors and residents. It will be wonderful to see these featured on the iconic Monopoly board.

“I am looking forward to seeing the final product and finding out which landmarks are chosen by the people of Perth to be featured. My personal vote would be to see Perth Museum and Art Gallery and its sister museum the Fergusson Gallery secure their places on the board.”